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North Carolina v. Leroux4/5/1990
Defendant assigns error to five aspects of the guilt-innocence phase of his trial and to one aspect of the sentencing proceeding. We have performed a careful and thorough review of the record, the briefs, and oral arguments of counsel, and we conclude that defendant received a fair trial free of prejudicial error.
The State's evidence tended to show that defendant engaged in a shooting spree in the early morning hours of 15 January 1987 in his Charlotte neighborhood. With his .22 rifle, he shot into the windows of several residences over a time period from approximately 12:00 midnight on 14 January to 2:00 a.m. on 15 January. Several residents testified that they heard rapid gunfire, as much as thirty or forty gunshots, on as many as five or six occasions that night. One of the residents called the Charlotte Police Department around 1:15 a.m., and Officers R.J. Hammett and R.L. Smith arrived on the scene a few minutes later. The resident related the circumstances of the shooting to them, and the officers then proceeded to walk across the fairway of the adjacent golf course in search of the perpetrator. There was a full moon that night, but a meteorologist testified as an expert witness for the defense that during the time period in question, clouds created a "total opague sky cover." This condition meant that the "cloud cover was so totally covering the sky and was of such thickness that there would be no discernable light from the moon."
Officer Hammett testified that he and Officer Smith proceeded to walk across the fairway, which was approximately two hundred feet wide, with Smith leading the way. Smith used his flashlight; Hammett did not. When they reached the tree line on the far side of the fairway, they turned to the right to walk down the
fairway toward the green. The officers had walked about forty or fifty feet when Smith exclaimed, "What's that? Look at that. Hit the deck." Shots then rang out from the darkness ahead of them. Hammett dropped to the ground and called for Smith, but received no response. After he sent a radio message to the police station for assistance, he spotted a man who was dressed in dark clothes in front of him. The man got up from a crouched position and began running along the tree line of the fairway into the woods. Hammett shot at the man and took cover behind a tree. He could hear the man running on the dead leaves through the woods. It sounded as if the man was running in a semicircle around toward him. Hammett moved around the tree in an attempt to protect himself. Officers S.P. Maxfield and Jerry Williams arrived a few minutes later. As they approached his side of the fairway, Hammett heard several shots and heard the suspect yell. He called for him to drop the gun, but the suspect continued to run. The suspect yelled again, and another volley of shots was fired. The chase continued for several minutes. Hammett then heard a shotgun blast and heard Williams yell, "he's down." Hammett walked to where Williams was standing and observed a man on the ground with a rifle beside him. He identified that man as the defendant.
Officer Williams testified that when he arrived, he armed himself with a shotgun and proceeded toward Officer Smith's body. After ascertaining that Smith was dead, he assisted his fellow officers in attempting to apprehend the suspect. He testified that after some time, he saw the suspect come out from behind a condominium. Williams aimed his shotgun at the suspect and ordered him to drop his gun. When the suspect instead raised his weapon, Williams shot him in the upper arm. Williams then approached the suspect, who said, "Well, you guys win." Williams testified that the suspect seemed to be very much in
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